Waste water treatment and other fluid conditioning is a process to convert, treat, or condition a liquid waste, which is no longer suitable for its intended use, into an effluent that can be reused after treatment—removing impurities, suspended solids, and contaminants from water being treated or returned to water cycle with minimal environmental impact (water reclamation).
Known types of wastewater treatment include: clarifiers, skimmers, and oil-water and sludge separators.
Clarifiers, as used in the wastewater industry are devices that are designed to do just what their name implies; they separate matter that is suspended in the liquid, thereby “clarifying” the water. Working on the principle that nothing is exactly the same weight as water, these units allow for the water to pool slowly letting the suspended matter that is heavier than water sink to the bottom where it is collected as sludge. Matter that is lighter than water is allowed to float to the top and either evaporates or is collected as scum by a simple skimmer device. While many effective designs have existed over the years, they are for the most part large unwieldy shapes and are usually constructed as in-ground structures or settling tanks with mechanical means for continuous movement of the wastewater. One disadvantage of clarifiers is shape and unwieldy mechanical means prohibit them from being portable. Another disadvantage of the clarifier is the design is set before construction commences, so current design clarifiers cannot easily be modified or expanded. Imagine trying to change the shape or capacity of an in ground swimming pool once it is already built. Another disadvantage of clarifiers is the energy required to pump the wastewater into the tank and the energy required to stir the wastewater results in large electrical energy requirement to operate the clarifier. Another disadvantage of the clarifier is the tanks are large and require acreage to construct the wastewater clarifier and the wastewater mixture releases odorous gases requiring the clarifier be placed remotely from the waste source or public requiring waste water transmission over great distances.
Skimmers are devices that catch or collect contaminated floating top layer of oil or oil substances floating on a liquid surface—the separation of a contaminated top layer. Skimmers include floating oil or oil substance absorbents and paddles in the path of the flowing liquid, for example, as it moves through a tank. One disadvantage of skimmers is they restrict flow and create turbulent flow pattern.
Oil-water and sludge separators includes a basin where a flow of effluent is supplied to the basin and wherein the flow is directed around one or more baffles whether divergent, deflectors, or resistance to flow, which create a heavy turbulence in the flow and transform a substantial part of the energy of flow into energy in the whirls which create the turbulence. The turbulence increases the creation of sludge flocs and the succeeding sedimentation of these. One disadvantage is eddy currents of turbulence help suspend some solids or minerals in the liquid and enable the liquid to hold on to these solids.
Therefore, it is readily apparent that there is a need for a passive gravity filter cell and methods of use thereof that functions to enable a combination of features including the calm flow of liquid with suspended solids without turbulence, little to no restriction of flow of liquid carrying suspended solids, low energy requirement, small acreage requirement, and thus, to improve the performance of removal of suspended solids from effluent.